Positive Technologies specialists revealed a new hacker group, the targets of which are government agencies and enterprises of the aerospace industry.

It uses methods typical of cybercriminals from China.

The group was named Space Pirates because of the "P1Rat" string in the code used and the targeting of some attacks on the aerospace industry. This is the so-called APT (advanced persistent threat) group, which has been active since at least 2017. Its key interests are espionage and stealing sensitive information.

Among the victims identified are government agencies and IT departments, aerospace and electric power companies in Russia, Georgia and Mongolia.